BABINSKI REFLEX AND MARIE-FOIX FLEXOR WITHDRAWAL REFLEX: Historical Notes

THE HISTORY of neurology recounts many dramatic instances in which identical discoveries of significance have been made by two men independently. The discoverers did or did not live in the same country; the discoveries were made simultaneously or after an interval of many years. Exophthalmic goiter, for instance, was first adequately described by the Irishman Graves, in 1835, and by the German Basedow, in 1840. The clinical picture of adiposogenital dystrophy was outlined by the Frenchman Babinski, in 1900, and by the Austrian Frohlich in 1901. The Russian Bechterew and the German Mendel both described the reflex of toe flexion elicited on tapping the dorsum of the foot in the year 1904. Epidural injection was reported before the Societe de Biologie de Paris on April 20, 1901 by Sicard and at a later meeting, on April 27, 1901, by Cathelin. Chordotomy for the relief of pain was introduced by the